Berkeley City Manager moving on

Debra Levi Holtz, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Friday, June 9, 2000

2000-06-09 04:00:00 PDT Berkeley -- Berkeley City Manager James Keene, who has spent much of the past four years walking a tightrope between a deeply divided City Council, said yesterday he is quit ting his job to take the top govern ment post in Tucson, Ariz.

Keene, known as a problem-solv er and tough negotiator, has come under increasing fire by council members who claim that he favors business interests too much. But Keene said his decision to move to Tucson was based on the career opportunities of working in a city nearly five times the size of Berke ley.

""Factional politics don't play into my decision," Keene, 49, said yester day by phone from Virginia, where he is attending a friend's funeral. ""I've been able to chart a course between both sides of the council. But individual personal attacks, looking at those, makes it easier to accept an attractive offer."

Keene, who will leave the Berke ley post on August 21, has been the city's top executive since 1996.

Two large signs declaring ""Berke ley Needs You James Keene. Please Stay the Course" were placed on two downtown Berkeley buildings yesterday morning.

Mayor Shirley Dean, a staunch supporter of Keene, said she is ""dev astated" by the city manager's resig nation.

""He's brought to Berkeley a new way of thinking about things in terms of technology, the budget, of how this city functions," said Dean. ""He really has attempted to make some fundamental changes here that are desperately needed. This place is stuck in the sixties."

Dean, leader of the council's moderate faction, said she blames her political opponents on the council's progressive majority, most notably Kriss Worthington, for mak ing life miserable for Keene by con stantly challenging him on a person al level.

""It has created a climate of mis trust and animosity that has so per meated the meetings and, in partic ular, the closed sessions that it's an impossibility to deal with," said Dean.

Worthington, however, said he has no personal grudge against Keene but believes the city manager has been an obstacle to his own political agenda.

""I think he has repeatedly and consistently opposed or postponed every progressive initiative we have put forth," said Worthington.

In becoming city manager of Tucson, Keene will preside over a city government with 5,600 employ ees and an annual budget of $820 million. By comparison, Berkeley employs 1,600 workers and spends $225 million a year.

Keene, who was the county man ager of Coconino County in Arizo na before coming to Berkeley, said he was drawn to Tucson because it is a university town with a strong arts culture and environmental bent that is grappling with rapid growth issues.

Keene will be paid $160,000 a year in Tucson. Earlier this year, he underwent a grueling evaluation af ter which a deeply split Berkeley City Council voted to give him a 9 percent pay raise to $154,000.